This disclosure relates to assisting conversation, and in particular, to allowing two or more headset users near each other in a noisy environment to speak with ease and hear each other with ease.
Carrying on a conversation in a noisy environment, such as a factory floor, aircraft, or crowded restaurant can be very difficult. In particular, the person speaking has trouble hearing their own voice, and must raise it above what may be a comfortable level just to hear themselves, let alone for the other person to hear them. The speaker may also have difficulty gauging how loudly to speak to allow the other person to hear them. Likewise, the person listening must strain to hear the person speaking, and to pick out what was said. Even with raised voices, intelligibility and listening ease suffer. Additionally, speaking loudly can disturb others nearby, and reduce privacy.
Various solutions have been attempted to reduce these problems. Hearing aids intended for those with hearing loss may attempt to amplify the voice of a person speaking to the user while rejecting unwanted noise, but they suffer from poor signal-to-noise ratio due to limitations of the microphone being located at the ear of the listener. Also, hearing aids provide only a listening benefit, and do not address the discomfort of straining to speak loudly. Other communication systems, such as noise-canceling, intercom-connected headsets for use by pilots, may be quite effective for their application, but are tethered to the dashboard intercom, and are not suitable for use by typical consumers in social or mobile environments or, even in an aircraft environment, i.e., by commercial passengers.